Hi all, I'm starting my first Tiki mug, and I'll be posting my progress here. I've been a sculptor for years, bit I've never tried to cast ceramic slip. Most of my sculptures are either latex masks, silicone busts or resin model kits, so ceramic slip is a new one...

My first step was the mug sculpture, I have about 100 designs drawn up but what to start with, I decided to go with a Harryhausen inspired Cyclops design being fairly simple.

Next thing was to make a mold, now I've made probably 1000 molds in my life, but they usually need to be as thin as possible for weight reasons. This one needed to be a good thick boxy one. So I did some research and found some resources online, and started.
The first step was to figure out how many pieces the mold needed to be, in this case 4 seems to be the right number. Part one was the face,

He looks a little nervous about what's about to happen....

Once that piece was molded and cleaned up, I started to block out part 2 of the mold.

Part 3 came next and then the plug for the bottom to finish it up.

Now it's just a waiting game to let the mold dry for a few days. I have my slip ready to go and I'm really having a hard time waiting. While making this mold I decided that a more durable master sculpture might be a good idea for the next mug that I make. I have the second mug sculpted, a little shrunken head...

So I decided that moving forward I would make a silicone master copy of my sculpture and use that to make the molds, then I could make as many molds of the same mug as I need.

I started to do this as a fun way to make myself a mug or two, but if it turns out I may sell a few of these mugs if people are interested. I need to finish one first, so I'll try not to get ahead of myself here. All I know is I'm really having fun making these.

Welcome to Tiki Central Tipsy Yeti, always room for more artists. You may catch a little flak that the Cyclops isn't really "tiki" but you are an amazing sculptor. And that has got to be the cleanest mold I have ever seen. Good luck with you slip casting!
_________________When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.
Pirate Ship Tree House

Thanks for the welcome, I really want to make a few mugs that are really different than anything that I've seen before. I will also have a drink concocted by my mixologist friend for each mug that I make. Thanks again for looking, More to come.

The first of my mugs are out of their molds and drying. I don't own a kiln, but there is a company here in SF where I can get them fired. Once I have a dozen of each I will get them fired and then onto some glazing tests.
I know these are not everyone's cup of tea, ( or rum) but I am also doing several traditional designs as well. I really appreciate any input that you all might have to share. The wealth of knowledge and talent here is Awesome.

As I progress through this process, it occurred to me that if I can make some more molds of these designs then the whole process will move along much faster. Casting one mug a day is for the birds. I decided that 10 of each mold would be a good number. That way I can just bring 100 pieces to the place with the kiln every couple of weeks. But making the original mold took an entire day, so I wanted to figure out a way to make multiple molds quickly. I figured " what if I considered each part of the mold to be a sculpture and mold them?" So that's what I did. In my previous work I've made hundreds of silicone rubber molds and thousands of plaster molds, I began by building mold boxes around all of the mold pieces.

Using foam core and hot glue...

Then mixed up enough mold making silicone to fill the boxes to the required thickness. After degassing the silicone I simply poured the silicone over the top of the mold models and filled the boxes.

The silicone took many hours to cure, so the next day I simply dismantled the mold boxes and removed the original plaster mold pieces from their new molds.

Then I mixed up enough pottery plaster to fill the silicone molds and poured it in, being careful to release all the air bubbles that may form on the serfice of the silicone.

After the plaster had set, warmed up and began the cool down I carefully pulled the new mold pieces from the silicone master molds. Then I assembled them and set the new production molds aside to dry.

Using this method, I was able to make all 10 of my production molds in 2 days. It may not be a new method but I've not seen it used here yet.
Hope this is interesting to some of you.
Thanks for looking.